Sullivan: Seton Hall's Jordan Theodore wants to make own history

The Record

NEW YORK – Jordan Theodore is a young man who believes in loyalty, who believes in honoring where you come from, who believes in honoring those who came before you.

So as he was racing down Madison Square Garden’s court over and over again, dishing off assists and scoring points at will, the catalyst to Seton Hall’s crushing 32-point win over Providence in the Big East tournament opener was doing his best to honor Seton Hall point guards of the past, the ones who used their senior season to push the Pirates onto March’s mad canvas.

But as much as Theodore was channeling the legacies of Shaheen Holloway, of Andre Barrett, or of Donald Copeland, three Pirate point guards who took Seton Hall to the NCAAs in last decade, he was carrying the lessons of the first point guard teacher he ever had, his brother Kwame Washington. Older by 10 years, Washington was the one who spent hours at Englewood’s Durie Park shooting hoops with Jordan and their middle brother Roy, the one who avoided the summer’s sweltering heat by dragging his younger brothers out for 3 a.m. suicide drills, the one who just last summer, when Seton Hall headed for a much-too-early off-season, worked three-a-day practices with Jordan at a Wyckoff gym.

“I owe a lot to him,” Jordan said in the aftermath of the Pirates’ 79-47 win. “He was a point guard, too, played college basketball at University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown, played at Dwight Morrow High School. When we got knocked out early last season and our season was over, he and I did those three-a-days together. He kept me going.”

Durie Park is gone now, paved over to make way for an elementary school. Theodore’s high school court is silent now, too, with Paterson Catholic having closed its doors two years ago. But what he learned on them lives on. Kwame didn’t just name his little brother – their mom let him choose the name Jordan Michael Harold Theodore, a first-and-middle-name reversal to honor of everybody’s favorite pro player – he shaped him too.

“Tonight he showed the world who Jordan Theodore is, as a leader and as a point guard,” Washington said by phone, shortly after leaving the Garden.

Theodore leaves little doubt about his roots, using the personal canvas of his own skin to represent. He gleefully pulls up his jersey to show off the large script “Englewood” tattooed across his back (over the outline of the state of New Jersey) and gladly flexes the right shoulder that is inked with “West Street” — the block where he grew up. He has many more tattoos, physical manifestations of what is in his heart.

“I rep Englewood to death, that is me,” Theodore said.

This is him too: Racing down the court time after time against the overmatched Friars, locked eyes on a moving target and delivering the basketball into waiting hands. With 13 points and 13 assists against one turnover, he was the best player on the floor.

Yet Theodore’s sublime field of vision isn’t limited to the confines of Madison Square Garden’s slick court, isn’t trained to see only baselines, sidelines, rims and backboards. For the senior guard, there are greater horizons to chase, bigger traditions to carry on. He is a Seton Hall point guard in his final year in uniform, and for him, that means only one acceptable end: the elusive NCAA berth.

After Seton Hall’s 20th win of the season, that distant goal inched a little bit closer, putting Theodore on the verge of reaching the one standard he knows defines great point guard play.

“I know the legacy of Seton Hall point guards. I’m very aware of the history and I speak to the guys who did it,” Theodore said. He sees Holloway, a Seton Hall assistant coach, every day, on the receiving end of daily tutorials and in-game reminders, including Tuesday night’s instruction to take over the game and make it his own. Seton Hall had fallen into a 9-0 hole to start, wasn’t rebounding and wasn’t converting open shots. But behind Theodore’s steady stewardship and fellow senior Herb Pope’s complementary inside play, the Pirates erupted their way back, using a 26-3 run that sealed the outcome.

Now, tonight’s second-round meeting with No. 7 Louisville stands as the only barrier to all but certain at-large inclusion in the NCAA field. In 2000, Holloway was the senior guard who took Seton Hall to the NCAA tournament. Barrett followed four years later, and Copeland in 2006, Seton Hall’s last trip.

“I keep in touch with them all, I know about guys like Richie Regan, all the great guards that have been here,” he said. “I just want to be one of them.”

With one much-needed win Tuesday and one enormous opportunity tonight, it’s so much closer than it was in the wake of an unfathomable two-game losing streak to end the regular season. The back-to-back collapses against rival Rutgers and last-place DePaul all but erased the magic of the 18-point upset of then-No. 9 Georgetown, the win that preceded the two games and the one that was supposed to permanently take Seton Hall out of the tournament bubble. Theodore struggled in those two losses, shooting a combined 28 percent from the field after nailing 8-of-11 overall and 5-for-5 from three-point range against the Hoyas.

He makes that much of a difference for this team. When he plays like he did Tuesday night, Seton Hall rises with him. One more win, and they might be dancing behind him too. And that is the vision he really wants to see.

Sullivan: Seton Hall's Jordan Theodore wants to make own history

The Record

NEW YORK – Jordan Theodore is a young man who believes in loyalty, who believes in honoring where you come from, who believes in honoring those who came before you.

So as he was racing down Madison Square Garden’s court over and over again, dishing off assists and scoring points at will, the catalyst to Seton Hall’s crushing 32-point win over Providence in the Big East tournament opener was doing his best to honor Seton Hall point guards of the past, the ones who used their senior season to push the Pirates onto March’s mad canvas.

But as much as Theodore was channeling the legacies of Shaheen Holloway, of Andre Barrett, or of Donald Copeland, three Pirate point guards who took Seton Hall to the NCAAs in last decade, he was carrying the lessons of the first point guard teacher he ever had, his brother Kwame Washington. Older by 10 years, Washington was the one who spent hours at Englewood’s Durie Park shooting hoops with Jordan and their middle brother Roy, the one who avoided the summer’s sweltering heat by dragging his younger brothers out for 3 a.m. suicide drills, the one who just last summer, when Seton Hall headed for a much-too-early off-season, worked three-a-day practices with Jordan at a Wyckoff gym.

“I owe a lot to him,” Jordan said in the aftermath of the Pirates’ 79-47 win. “He was a point guard, too, played college basketball at University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown, played at Dwight Morrow High School. When we got knocked out early last season and our season was over, he and I did those three-a-days together. He kept me going.”

Durie Park is gone now, paved over to make way for an elementary school. Theodore’s high school court is silent now, too, with Paterson Catholic having closed its doors two years ago. But what he learned on them lives on. Kwame didn’t just name his little brother – their mom let him choose the name Jordan Michael Harold Theodore, a first-and-middle-name reversal to honor of everybody’s favorite pro player – he shaped him too.

“Tonight he showed the world who Jordan Theodore is, as a leader and as a point guard,” Washington said by phone, shortly after leaving the Garden.

Theodore leaves little doubt about his roots, using the personal canvas of his own skin to represent. He gleefully pulls up his jersey to show off the large script “Englewood” tattooed across his back (over the outline of the state of New Jersey) and gladly flexes the right shoulder that is inked with “West Street” — the block where he grew up. He has many more tattoos, physical manifestations of what is in his heart.

“I rep Englewood to death, that is me,” Theodore said.

This is him too: Racing down the court time after time against the overmatched Friars, locked eyes on a moving target and delivering the basketball into waiting hands. With 13 points and 13 assists against one turnover, he was the best player on the floor.

Yet Theodore’s sublime field of vision isn’t limited to the confines of Madison Square Garden’s slick court, isn’t trained to see only baselines, sidelines, rims and backboards. For the senior guard, there are greater horizons to chase, bigger traditions to carry on. He is a Seton Hall point guard in his final year in uniform, and for him, that means only one acceptable end: the elusive NCAA berth.

After Seton Hall’s 20th win of the season, that distant goal inched a little bit closer, putting Theodore on the verge of reaching the one standard he knows defines great point guard play.

“I know the legacy of Seton Hall point guards. I’m very aware of the history and I speak to the guys who did it,” Theodore said. He sees Holloway, a Seton Hall assistant coach, every day, on the receiving end of daily tutorials and in-game reminders, including Tuesday night’s instruction to take over the game and make it his own. Seton Hall had fallen into a 9-0 hole to start, wasn’t rebounding and wasn’t converting open shots. But behind Theodore’s steady stewardship and fellow senior Herb Pope’s complementary inside play, the Pirates erupted their way back, using a 26-3 run that sealed the outcome.

Now, tonight’s second-round meeting with No. 7 Louisville stands as the only barrier to all but certain at-large inclusion in the NCAA field. In 2000, Holloway was the senior guard who took Seton Hall to the NCAA tournament. Barrett followed four years later, and Copeland in 2006, Seton Hall’s last trip.

“I keep in touch with them all, I know about guys like Richie Regan, all the great guards that have been here,” he said. “I just want to be one of them.”

With one much-needed win Tuesday and one enormous opportunity tonight, it’s so much closer than it was in the wake of an unfathomable two-game losing streak to end the regular season. The back-to-back collapses against rival Rutgers and last-place DePaul all but erased the magic of the 18-point upset of then-No. 9 Georgetown, the win that preceded the two games and the one that was supposed to permanently take Seton Hall out of the tournament bubble. Theodore struggled in those two losses, shooting a combined 28 percent from the field after nailing 8-of-11 overall and 5-for-5 from three-point range against the Hoyas.

He makes that much of a difference for this team. When he plays like he did Tuesday night, Seton Hall rises with him. One more win, and they might be dancing behind him too. And that is the vision he really wants to see.